Welcome back to the podcast. On Monday, we took a look at what distinguishes our lives from the lives of non-Christians around us. There, in APJ 1858, we touched on spiritual gifts a little bit, and then in the episode before that, we asked, "What are my skills worth?" That was APJ 1857, which was a fascinating discussion because in many churches, you have a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, a carpenter, an auto mechanic, someone who makes money from their skills.

Sometimes those skills can be exploited by people in the local church for free. Maybe you've experienced that very thing yourself. The conclusion was, "Be willing to pay for the service," Piper said, "and if the skilled person wants to make a special gift to you, that's his or her to decide, not yours to expect." It's a good summary.

If skilled Christians in the church share the same skills you will find among non-Christians outside the church, what makes a spiritual gift spiritual? Because as we'll hear today, many unbelievers have great abilities, abilities to lead and administrate and teach, but those gifts are not automatically spiritual gifts, obviously. What makes a spiritual gift spiritual?

In a sermon, Pastor John turned to Paul's testimony in Romans 1 for the answer. There Paul writes, "For I long to see you, the church in Rome, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." That's Romans 1 verses 11 to 12.

Here's Pastor John to unpack it and to apply it. So the basic problem is becoming the kind of person who wakes up in the morning and thanks God for life and for salvation and then says, "Lord, oh, how I want to strengthen people's faith today at work. Lord, let me come to the end of this day and be able to look back and say, 'Somebody has more confidence in your promises today because I crossed their path.

Somebody is more happy in your grace because I crossed their path.'" That's the main problem, waking up and being that kind of person. The reason I say that's the basic problem and not the discovery of spiritual gifts is because if there were 550 people in this church waking up and saying that and praying that and meaning that, the Holy Spirit would not leave you frustrated in finding ways to do that.

He will not let a person whose heart is earnestly desirous of building other people up go without building them up. He will help you find those ways and the finding of those ways will be the discovering of your gifts. It doesn't matter whether you can find a name for it or not.

So let's apply ourselves to becoming the kind of people who more and more long to build up each other's faith, to make each other happier in the Lord, to make each other more confident in his promises. Now next verse, really interesting insights that come from comparing these two verses.

Verse 12, Paul restates verse 11 in different words. That's what you do when you start a sentence with "that is." You're restating what you just said. I want to strengthen you by my spiritual gift. That is, I want us to mutually encourage or be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

Now Paul does two things here. This is really interesting. The first thing he does is the old "it's my pleasure" tactic. You remember that sermon back in the fall that I preached called "It's My Pleasure, Christian Hedonism and Humility." Paul is doing that right here. Notice, when we say, "Oh, it's my pleasure," after we do a benefit for somebody, a favor, what we're doing is trying to be humble.

We're saying, "Well, don't get too worked up about my self-sacrifice because I just did what I wanted to do." So you cut off too much praise. You try to humble yourself after having done a good deed. Now that's what Paul is doing here, I think. Paul re-reads verse 11.

He says, "Hmm, I sure don't want to give the impression that I'm coming on strong there as the great benefactor who's going to do them all this good and get no benefit." So he backs off and he restates his goal to say, "It's going to be two-way street in Rome.

I'm going to get encouraged and you're going to get encouraged. It's my pleasure. Don't give me too much praise. I'm just doing what I like to do when I go around preaching and get encouraged by other people's faith as well as encouraging them." That's the first thing he does in this text.

Now the second thing he does is to show that the way he's going to strengthen their faith by using his spiritual gift is by encouraging them with his faith. Now notice the parallel between the two verses. In verse 11, he aims to strengthen them. In verse 12, he aims to encourage them.

So those two words are parallel. In verse 11, he aims to strengthen them by his spiritual gift. In verse 12, he aims to encourage them by his faith. Now I think you can draw the conclusion, therefore, this definition of spiritual gifts. A spiritual gift is an expression of faith that aims to strengthen faith.

Wouldn't that be a fair definition, having put those two verses together and seeing that verse 12 is an explanation of verse 11? A spiritual gift is activated by faith and aims to produce more faith in another person. Or another way to put it would be this. A spiritual gift is an ability given by the Holy Spirit to express our faith effectively for the up-building of another's faith.

That's what a spiritual gift is, I think, from these two verses. Now that to me is very helpful because it helps me distinguish and keep separate natural abilities and spiritual gifts. They aren't the same. Many, many unbelievers have great abilities—administration, teaching, for example, to name a couple. And these are given by God.

He has what he has from God, whether they acknowledge it or not. But they're not spiritual gifts in the New Testament sense, are they? Why? Because they do not come from faith, they're not expressions of faith, and they're not aiming to strengthen faith. Our faith is the channel through which the Holy Spirit flows on his way to building up another person's faith.

And therefore, for any ability that we have to be a channel for the Spirit and therefore spiritual, it has to flow from faith in him and aim towards faith in another person. So no matter what abilities we have, if we're not relying on God—that is, having faith—and we're not aiming to help others rely on God, produce faith, our ability is not spiritual.

It's not a spiritual gift because the Holy Spirit is not flowing through it from faith to faith. Now, that has tremendous implications for a church in the selection of its staff, the choice of its officers, and its board members. The implication is this, it means that we will never simply say, "Who has the ability to efficiently do this job?" Never.

That's a wholly inadequate criterion for determining a person's suitability for staff or for office in the church. We will go on and ask, "Does this person use his skill or her ability to express their lively and hearty dependence on the Lord?" And we will ask, "Does the exercise of that skill aim always to be helping other people believe more, or does the way they go about doing their work always manage to put people down or make people feel unbelieving rather than believing?" A church where the Holy Spirit is alive and powerful will always be sensitive to the difference between natural abilities and spiritual gifts.

So good, a spiritual gift is an expression of faith that aims to strengthen faith. That's helpful. This clip was taken from John Piper's message on spiritual gifts, simply titled "Spiritual Gifts," and preached on March 15, 1981. The whole message is online. Have a sermon clip for me? Send me an email.

Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio, and make a note of what stands out to you. Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

Well speaking of spiritual gifts, what do we do when we don't have one? Or we don't think we have one? What are some practical steps to finding our spiritual gifts? Pastor John will explain next time. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Friday. 1. What are some practical steps to finding your spiritual gifts?

2. What are some practical steps to finding your spiritual gifts?